Tag: srlm
White Lake
Posted on February 15, 2025
White Lake is part of the abandoned area of The Maithen Plateau. White Lake is a high hill lake 300′ up from the plateau base and about 1m long and .5 wide of mostly very clear water. When heavy rains flowed, it would get tinged with white from the Kaolin deposits. There used to be several small creeks (with small amounts of pyrite sifting and panning) that spilled down from it, but when the mines nearby needed water for sifting and straining, a series of sluice gates was built to bring down pressurized water to the reservoir at Sifter’s Gap.
White Lake lives up to its name, with obvious white kaolin clay deposits around its basin. The area is desolate and the winds make strange sounds. there is evidence of a few stone structures near the edge of the lake that have long collapsed. Swirls of fog drift off the lake, moving swiftly over the ground, on down to the plateau below. Ripples emanate from some unseen force across the surface of the lake. You feel a strange aura of forced stillness, a building tension permeates the air but never seems to break.
Originally amphibians and dragonflies were the only inhabitants of the lake area, but settlers brought in trout which have flourished, while drawing some predator birds to the area. These have mostly vanished now.
Hard Difficulty History: Riverdans (History of the Mathien Plateau)
You remember that the power the druids awakened here at White Lake to scour the plateau was never fully put to rest. The strange sounds, weather, and feelings that those on the plateau experience, causing it to remain abandoned, all are sourced from this place.
Encounters: It has the encounters common to all Places on the Maithean Plateau.
- The mists, breezes, and rain up here is likely to trigger a Mists of Memory experience due to the residual power of the anima fount here.
History
“Calamity of White Lake“: When the forces of the Orrish overran The Maithen Plateau settlements in CY 8802 and The Watch Vault of Kunlay, the druids summoned a powerful anima spirit like they did at Spakaya (The Dog Fort), that drew forth all the water in the underground area and White Lake to sweep everything aside. A raging, frothing water steed led the front of a massive wave, drawing it along, and grinding the retreating forces that had overwhelmed Kunlay back into its breach, cracking rocks and sweeping them back into The Underlands.
Mathien Plateau (abandoned)
Posted on February 15, 2025 in Steel-Realms
The Mathien Plateau is in Hopalen Mountains – a spur of the Hawktail Hills – in the Riverdan of Tuflim. The plateau is about 1400′ up (approx .5km). It runs vaguely NW, for about 4km, and is about 1.8km wide, tapering on both ends.
Mathien Road: The long Mathien Road stretches as a spur of the Hopalen Road in the base of the mountains of the same name. It has a long, slow rise that goes south, then switches then NW. It takes about 5 hours of travel to get to the plateau from the base… hours longer now that the road is in disrepair. It is not safe to gallop a horse on, and without clearing, not suited for carts or wagons. Evidence of small washouts and rubble dumps exist at various points.
Traveling to/through:
The road up is desolate, long abandoned. At the top of the road is an area obviously once rubble chocked. It has been cleared sometime far in the past to allow passage on foot. The plateau has a palpable air of loneliness and the wind whistles mournfully through the hills and ruined settlements. A road once meandered across the plateau lengthwise, connecting mines and settlements, but there is little left to mark its way once the plateau itself is reached. There is still the slight remnants of north and south spur roads the lead along the edges of the plateau.
Encounters: It exposes travelers to the encounters (or lack of!) common to all Places on the Mathien Plateau.
Barden Stretch
Posted on February 15, 2025 in Steel-Realms
The Barden Stretch is an open area of the Riverdan of Tuflim that bordering Cerrans Grant to the North. On its western edge is the Hopalen Mountains. It is mostly farmsteads and hamlets.
Ruins of Barden
The area was once home to the town of Barden. This town was a point of gathering and local market. Its population was about 900. Once the Nanford River changed course and Cerrans Grant was put in place, it became a frontier watchpoint and trade post. Eventually, other trade routes took its place and the town was abandoned. Some of its stones have been used in farmsteads in the locale, but for the most part nothing above 6-8 feet walls remain, and most are only 2-3 feet. Anything of value was scavenged long ago.
Hopalen Mountains (Hawktail Hills spur)
Posted on February 15, 2025 in Steel-Realms
The Hopalen Mountains are a spur of the Hawktail Hills in the Riverdan of Tuflim. It consists of three large peaks and several smaller ones, and the now abandoned Maithen Plateau that was once a thriving set of settlements. The three main peaks cradle the plateau to the south and east. It runs into a smaller spur that becomes the Hawktail Hills to the west.
The mountainous area once supported a few different mining operations, but with the decline of the Riverdans, Coal and a small amount of iron is all that’s taken from a few small veins in their lower reaches… these supply local needs only, and are not commercial grade.
Hopalen Road: The Hopalen Road winds around the base from the north in Barden Stretch, along the base of the three peaks area and eventually diminishes as it goes SW and the road runs out. The Mathien Road is a spur that leads up to the The Maithen Plateau.
Traveling to/through:
The base of the Hopalen Mountains rises sharply on its eastern edge. The three peaks rise up over 1500 feet each. The area seems to be a natural wonder, the peaks themselves resembling spires at their tops, and the last hundred more so of each almost form a spire. Nothing else recommends the area – there is expected wildlife, and a few agricultural farmsteads along the Hopalen Road where streams come from the hills. The base of the mountains has a population of no more than a couple hundred on scattered farms, including workers.
Hopalen High peak: The highest of the three peaks of the ‘Hopalen Mountains’. It rises some 2200 feet. A lot of fog forms on the north face, dropping down onto the plateau.
Hopalen Shoulder Peak: It rises about 1800 feet.
Hopalen Overwatch Peak: It rises about 1600 feet.
Geoxylish (“underland tree”)
Posted on February 14, 2025 in Steel-Realms
Geoxylish are a fibrous stunted tree that grows in shallow caverns underground. It has a root system that extends up through the system to above the soil. It is referred to as an “underlands tree”, though in reality it only grows on the edge of the Curtain of Night in obscured and concealed valleys or foothills by the Orrish. This is coveted materials as it is a type of wood that can be used in making weapons and does not quickly break down in the dank Dark Lands once harvested, if treated properly with a special resin. Such weapons or items are reserved for the elite of Orrish society or built up as part of a raiding force.